The Human Museum

Metamorphosis on the winter solstice

Kate Wylie (she/they) is a poet from St. Louis, Missouri. Wylie serves the community as Literary Obituaries Editor for Northwest Review and Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Webster University. Wylie received an M.F.A. from Pacific University in Oregon in 2023 and has been published widely. She is the author of The Ozark Mountain Equestrian Club for Dead Men (June 2024) and Flowermouth (October 2024).

---

Coffee ground interior
I couldn’t have been nineteen much longer
Sometimes particulars will only 
weigh the story down by gravity and time
It could have been spring, or maybe September
Neon green and blue-shock chalk lines 
intersecting at angles, strange and unfamiliar
The facade that creates each face
Perpendicular forces
Wind chimes and turbines
Obsessions with color, barn-owl screech
Another sound I’ve internalized
Another sense I’ve invented
What makes girlhood
What makes anything sacred
Snowstorm turning quick to sleet
What started as a blessing ended with a curse
I can teach you how to speak another language
but you’ll have to close both eyes first

---